(Newser)
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Tori Amos has a lot of female fans and a lot of gay male fans, but as for the straight males ... not so much. "For straight men, I’m too raw, the emotional thing, the things you don’t want to talk about—that’s what goes on at my shows," she tells the Guardian in a new interview, adding that straight guys are "tortured by what goes on" at her concerts. The interviewer observes that lots of people are so moved that they cry at Amos' shows, and the singer notes, "I don’t think [the adoration] is projected at me personally. It’s a relationship with the songs, not me."

She also acknowledges the ageism that exists in the music biz, particularly for women, and stands up for Madonna, who was mocked after falling during a recent performance. "There are very few people who could’ve gotten up off that floor," Amos says. "It wasn’t because of her that she fell, but it was because of her that the performance carried on. Some of the vilification comes from women as much as men. She’s making choices and she’s able to do things physically that a lot of people 25 years younger can’t; she got up and refused to allow that to shame her. I think people want her to be shamed into a role that they find acceptable for her age." Click for the full interview.